These are four of the participants that will be in the Battle Royal for the ECW #1 Contendership on Sunday. Chavo Guerrero was on commentary. Kane started by fighting off all three heels. DDT on Henry. Palumbo was eliminated less than a minute in. The heels did some double-teaming and Michael Cole picked Henry to win the battle royal. Khali did the double-handed chokeslam. Henry picked Kane up and threw him out. Khali and Henry stood face-to-face and Khali chopped him in the head. Henry impressively grabbed Khali and tossed him out for the win.

WINNER: Henry, at 2:46. Surprising result.

After the match, Chavo Guerrero ran in to attack, but Henry caught him coming off the top and slammed him.

-Coming up, Edge will conduct a burial service for the Undertaker’s undefeated streak.

[Commercial Break]

-Backstage, the final three diva contestants were talking it up in Teddy Long’s office. Long walked in and recapped things for them (but mostly, for the fans). Some humming sound distracted Teddy before he announced that Eve was eliminated. Suddenly, Victoria appeared and taunted Eve. Teddy saw a problem here and wanted to solve it with a Wet-and-Wild water fight. Makes sense.

2- CM PUNK vs. JOHN MORRISON

A briefcase hung over the ring as a reminder of the match these two are involved in on Sunday. Morrison landed a unique back-kick to the head, but that only angered Punk. A snap-suplex got a two count for CM. Punk hit a cross-body that sent him AND Morrison over the top rope to the outside. Match will continue after break.

[Commercial Break]

Punk had Morrison in a head-scissor out of break. Morrison eventually got to the outside to break Punk’s momentum. He regained control out there but taking Punk’s legs out from under him. Morrison began to work on Punk’s left arm. A jumping kick by Morrison allowed Punk to get some kicks in of his own. Punk through the ropes onto Morrison on the outside. Back in, a scoop slam got two. Double-underhook back-breaker got Punk another near-fall. Morrison dodged Punk’s attempt at a knee in the corner and hit a neck-breaker for a two-count. Slingshot by Punk sent Morrison head-first into the buckle. Bulldog by Punk for two. Punk hit a dangerous-looking hurricanrana from the top rope. You pretty much go straight down on your head if you’re the offensive guy doing that move, so you have to make sure you get your arms over your head to protect. Punk reversed Morrison’s finisher into the GTS for the win.

Cade tried to run from Festus at the bell, but Festus chased him. He ended up slamming both tag team partners and knocking Miz off the apron. Jesse made the tag and hit a neck-breaker. Good pop for Kofi upon his entrance into the match. It’s like he’s got springs in his legs. Jesse went to the top, but while the ref’s back was turned, Miz pushed him off and to the outside. Cade & Murdoch briefly double-teamed Jesse. Miz tagged in and just got to Jesse, making sure he didn’t tag Festus. As Jesse was close to a tag, Murdoch took out Festus behind the ref’s back. Moments later, Jesse tagged Kofi, who landed all of his usual moves. The match got out-of-control, with Festus clotheslining Cade & Murdoch. Kingston landed the Jamaican Buzzsaw on Miz for the pin.

WINNERS: Jesse, Festus and Kingston, at 6:18. Okay preview for the battle royal Sunday.

-Cole and Coach talked about the Hall-of-Fame ceremony. The Gordon Solie video package from ECW introduced him as the final 2008 inductee.

[Commercial Break]

-It’s champion vs. champion tonight, when MVP takes on Chris Jericho.

4- BATISTA vs. SNITSKY

The story is William Regal sent a mystery superstar over to face Batista as a warm-up to facing Umaga at WrestleMania. Right off the bat, Batista hit a spear, spinebuster and Batista Bomb and pin.

WINNER: Batista, at :24. Easy payday for ol’ Gene.

After the match, Batista got a chair and drove Snitsky into it with another Batista Bomb.

-Cole and Coach talked about Edge vs. Undertaker at WrestleMania; we then got a video package on said match.

Eve Torres is your guest referee. Victoria was sporting flippers, floaties and a snorkel. Only way to win is by pinfall here, though Cole also said submission. We had buckets of water balloons and water guns. Maryse did some posing for the fans, and got the bucket of water dumped on her. Victoria slipped on some water and Michelle got two on the cover. Victoria FINALLY used the water gun to beat Michelle with. Maryse held Cherry so Victoria could dump the bucket of water on her, but Cherry moved. Michelle hit her double-underhook face-plant on Victoria for the win.

WINERS: McCool and Cherry, at 3:07. So are we not voting this week? I think Cole said the winner would be announced next week on the show from Miami. Not that it matters. The only thing on this show thus far that isn’t building toward WrestleMania, which makes it a bit out of place.

-Up next, MVP faces Chris Jericho.

[Commercial Break]

-Cole & Coach ran down the WrestleMania card.

-MVP came out for his match with Jericho. He got the stick and said everyone will be calling him “Money in the Bank” after Sunday. His match with Jericho is next. Seriously this time.

[Commercial Break]

6- MVP vs. CHRIS JERICHO

They exchanged some mat holds (and trash talk) early in the match. MVP landed a hard slap to Jericho’s face, and after a pause, Jericho took MVP down with a tackle. Jericho elbowed MVP to the outside, and as Montel Vontavious Porter was taking a break, Jericho hit a baseball slide. Y2J missed a dive into the corner on MVP and landed on the outside. That sent us to break.

[Commercial Break]

The U.S. Champ was taking it to the I.C. Champ upon return. A surprise roll-up by Jericho got two-and-a-half. MVP came back on offense with the “Ballin’!” elbowdrop. A scroll at the bottom of the screen announced that Big Show vs. Floyd Mayweather at WrestleMania will be an anything-goes match where there must be a winner: by pinfall, submission, or knockout. WWE.com had announced it earlier in the afternoon. There was some more back-and-forth action when Jericho hit a Northern Lights Suplex that looked like it landed MVP on his head. Enziguiri was next from Y2J. Lionsault by Jericho, but MVP countered with a knee to the gut. He came back with a kick to the head for a two-count. Jericho couldn’t quite lock in the Walls and was instead kicked to the head again. Playmaker was countered and Jericho finally locked in the Walls, but MVP grabbed the ropes immediately. MVP went to the outside and tripped Jericho up. Porter went to ringside and got both title belts. Before MVP could even hit Jericho, the referee called for the bell. Jericho dodged the attack anyway and went to ringside to retrieve a ladder from under the ring. He rammed it into MVP’s face.

WINNER: Jericho, at 13:50. Several of the one-on-one MITB preview matches would make for good feuds. This is one of them.

-Edge will bury Undertaker’s WM win streak next.

[Commercial Break]

-John Legend, at his piano, plugged his WrestleMania appearance this Sunday.

-Making his first appearance of the show, Edge came out. He wore a nice suit and was flanked by Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder. Vickie Guerrero and Teddy Long were already in the ring. There was a casket in the ring as well as lots of black, some flowers and a podium. Somber music played in the background as Edge took the mic. Edge read a partial list of those who Taker has defeated at WM; it would be interesting for Edge to “recruit” those guys to help him try to beat Taker at WM, and perhaps have them interfere after a ref bump or something. Edge basically said he’d end Taker’s win streak. Nothing special. He gave the microphone to Vickie, who said Edge is a man everyone else aspires to be. Vickie said the EdgeHeads and her had a preview of WM made for Edge. It was a video in the form of a movie trailer. It even had the movie voice-over guy. They managed to sneak “In a world...” in there too. It was a pro-Edge video, naturally, that proclaimed Edge a hero becoming a legend on Sunday. Edge said a few final words, then pulled up Vickie’s black veil and began to make out with her. That is, until Taker’s bell tolled and the lights went out. Taker appeared out of nowhere and pounded away at Edge. He then chokeslammed the champ into the open casket in the ring. Vickie sat in her wheelchair screaming as Taker turned his attention to her. She ran out of the ring and backstage as Taker finished off Edge’s henchmen. Taker posed in the ring to end the show.

He hosted the weekly Pro Wrestling Focus radio show on KFAN in the early 1990s and hosted the Ultimate Insiders DVD series distributed in retail stories internationally in the mid-2000s including interviews filmed in Los Angeles with Vince Russo & Ed Ferrara and Matt & Jeff Hardy. He currently hosts the most listened to pro wrestling audio show in the world, (the PWTorch Livecast, top ranked in iTunes)

REACHING 1 MILLION+ UNIQUE USERS PER MONTH
500 MILLION CLICKS & LISTENS PER YEAR
MILLIONS OF PWTORCH NEWSLETTERS SOLD

PWTorch offers a VIP membership for $10 a month (or less with an annual sub). It includes nearly 25 years worth of archives from our coverage of pro wrestling dating back to PWTorch Newsletters from the late-'80s filled with insider secrets from every era that are available to VIPers in digital PDF format and Keller's radio show from the early 1990s.

Also, new exclusive top-shelf content every day including a new VIP-exclusive weekly 16 page digital magazine-style (PC and iPad compatible) PDF newsletter packed with exclusive articles and news.

The following features come with a VIP membership which tens of thousands of fans worldwide have enjoyed for many years...